The modern class action was born in North America more than fifty years ago. Initially imagined as a liberal initiative intended to expand the civil rights and liberties of American citizens, it became a tool for public interest altruistic lawyers to conduct institutional reform litigation and challenge discrimination, institutions and education. Later on, in the U.S., mass torts and attorney fee increases led lawyers to conceptualise and use the class action as a financial venture. This new class action tool appeared to be a promising new form of complex litigation.

Canada then followed the American lead and adopted a class action tool, thereby evolving in similar directions. Born in Quebec in 1979, the recours collectif had a thunderbolt effect within the community. After a slow start, class actions eventually started being certified and led to many successful collective recoveries in varied cases. In the early eighties, the Supreme Court of Canada emphasised the class action’s utility and objectives, and class proceedings systems started being enacted in other Canadian provinces.

Today, one could say from the apparent volume of cases brought annually, the variety of such cases, the damage amounts sought and awarded, and the increasing numbers of cases brought throughout North-America, that class actions are here to stay. But American authors seem to suggest that common law class actions are declining, that they might even be dying. The U.S. Supreme Court in Italian Colours, Wal-Mart and A.T. & T. Cases has recently similarly narrowed the scope and uses of U.S. class actions. In comparison, in 2015, the Canadian Supreme Court has reversed certain trends that had previously been shifting in a plaintiff-friendly direction and has started to show judicial reluctance to certify global and national class actions.

This conference will seek to determine how the class action has evolved from its original objectives and uses to current, contemporary practices. It will ask whether class actions are worth their while for plaintiffs, members and the general public, as based on current empirical data. It will seek to answer the following questions: What were the original conception, uses and effects of the class action and how have they evolved over the decades, throughout North America? What proof (and data) do we have, if any, that the goals of compensation, deterrence and efficiency are being met? What effect does the class action tool have in today’s practice?

The two official languages of the conference are English and French. A simultaneous translation service will be provided to all conference participants, as between French and English.